BETH-SHEAN

Beth-Shean was one of the ten cities of the Decapolis and in New Testament times was known as "Scythopolis." There is not a more strategic site in the whole of ancient Israel than this one. The city has been inhabited off and on for 5,000 years. It has been strategic because it is right at the place where two food-producing valleys join each other. Solomon used this city (I Kings 4:12) as one of his depots. Beth-Shean belonged to Issachar, and then it was turned over to Manasseh. Canaanites in this area made life difficult. King Saul and his three sons, including Jonathan, were killed in the battle against the Philistines at Mt. Gilboa, and their bodies were fastened to the city gates of Beth-Shean. After hearing of Saul’s death, David wrote one of the most moving eulogies every put into words in II Samuel 1. The Philistines placed the armor of Saul and his sons in their pagan temple and "fastened his head in the temple of Dagon." (I Chronicles 10:10) The excavations at Beth-Shean continue to produce some of the most spectacular ruins anywhere in the world.